Category: News

Looks like someone has decided that it is time for Singapore to implement a 4-day school week.

A petition has been circulating around the internet over the past few days in a bid to request the Ministry of Education to implement a 4-day school week.

Gabriel Ee, who started the petition on 24 July (Monday), provided the reason that a reduced school week ‘may remedy the sleep problem than most students have’ and he believed that ‘the extra day off may benefit the learning economy of Singapore’.

His ideas resonate with many of the members of the public. One of the signatories, Jeremy Sng, agreed that a 4-day school week will help the students to become less tired. He left his reason on the comment column, stating, “All of those days of school could give student homework which we aren’t able to complete in one day so I think there should be one day less of school.”

Improved Results

The call to reduce the number of school days is not new. Schools in the U.S. states of Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming have already cut back on the school days since 2015. However, here’s the catch: In the school that pushed out shorter school week, there also implement longer school hours on the each school days as well.

A study conducted in 2015 has concluded that a four-day school week is linked to better academic performance. It was initially thought that longer days on a shorter school week would hurt the academic performances of the students due to shorter attention spans and a longer weekend would mean an increased chance of them forgetting whatever that had been taught.

However, after looking at a number of students in each school that scored “proficient or advanced” on state-wide maths and reading test, before and after the school changed to a four-day week, they observed improvements in their results. It was observed that there is an increase from 55.5% of a school’s students on average achieving the top scores before the change to 63.1% after the change.

At the time of publication, the petition has already received 25,213 signatures, close to three-quarter of the total amount of people required for activation.

Amazon officially launches its two-hour delivery service Prime Now in Singapore on Thursday. Singaporeans will be offered thousands of products and are able to receive their goods via express delivery. Goods will be dispatched from its new fulfilment centre at the western part of the island.

The fulfilment centre covered a total of 100,000 sq ft at the Mapletree Logistic Hub in Toh Guan Road East and is now the largest in the world.

It hasn’t been a surprise to some, who have been following Amazon’s movements actively. There were reports last year claiming that the e-commerce giant will make its entry into the South-East Asian market. A source close to the company had even expected Amazon to launch selected services in Singapore by the first quarter of 2017, after its failed acquisition of RedMart last year.

It is better late than never.

In the recent days leading up to the official launch, there was a series of high-profile Instagrammers making sponsored posts with regards to the service. This further the speculations that Amazon will land here soon.

What is Amazon Prime Now?

According to its website, Amazon Prime Now is a benefit of Amazon Prime where members can place orders fast with same-day delivery in selected zip codes.

What’s in stall for Singaporeans?

Although Amazon Prime Now is extended to only Amazon Prime members, yet the company is still in the process of launching the membership here in Singapore. Therefore, the Prime Now service will be available without the membership element for the current being.

Orders over S$40 placed via the smartphone app will be delivered straight to your doorsteps within two hours without any delivery charges. Customers can also pay an additional $9.99 to get their goods within 1 hour.

And apparently, they are really selling almost everything.

From vegetables…

To health supplements.

And also monitors and TV…

And of course, they didn’t forget how everyone gets rather awkward buying condoms over the counter…

As part of the introduction of the Prime Now service, Amazon will also be offering a S$10 discount for your first order (‘10PRIMENOW‘) upon checking out. Visa card users will be entitled to a S$20 discount with your first order through the code ‘VISA20‘.

A&W has recently announced that they are making a return to Singapore.

In an interview with Yahoo Lifestyle Singapore, A&W President and CEO Kevin Bazner has revealed that the new A&W outlet will be Halal Certified. He elaborated that the beef patties will be wholly sourced from Australia while its fresh chicken supply will “predominantly be sourced in the region and prepared locally”.

The announcement was received with support from the local Muslim community, many of whom have expressed their enthusiasm on A&W’s return.

WAIT for A LITTLE MORE: Coney Dogs are one of the fan-favourites in the A&W fast food chain. (Image: SAYS)

Despite being the first fast food chain to open its business in Singapore, A&W had shut its last Singapore outlet in 2003, the same year Yum! Brands acquired the company. The company has since been sold to A Great American Brand in 2011. Since then, there have been plans for the fast food chain to return to Singapore.

The exact location on where the outlet will be have not been confirmed, but they are looking into key neighbourhood towns and regions, commercial malls and the Central Business District.

Meanwhile, those who crave for some A&W delicacy can travel across the Causeway to Aeon Bukit Indah in JB. You can take either Causeway Link bus services CW3 (Jurong) or CW6 (Boon Lay) to take you directly there.

BUCKET WHO?: A candidate with the name ‘Lord Buckethead’ contested the seat at Maidenhead against Theresa May
(Image: AP)

The British are known for their humour, evident from famous sitcoms like Bottom (love that TV series because there’s a character named Eddie Hitler), Blackadder, Yes Minister and of course, not forgetting Mind Your Language. For me, I get my dose of British humour from inside Westminster, where debates between members are far more interesting that the one over at Clarke Quay.

As the UK Parliamentary Elections concluded last Saturday, with the country looking set to be governed by a minority government, we look at the lighter part of the entire campaign which will give you the impression that there are so much more than casting a ballot.

THE RETURN OF LORD BUCKETHEAD

YOU SEE ME DAB, YOU HATIN’: Lord Buckethead dabs as he awaits the results with the other candidates.

Lord Buckethead is simply the candidate with a bucket headgear and no one really knows his real identity.

However, it is no secret that Lord Buckethead contested twice previously, once in 1987 against then-PM Margeret Thatcher (Finchley) and in 1992, against the then newly appointed PM John Major (Huntingdon). The Gremloid party candidate received 131 votes against Thatcher and 107 against Major.

This time round, he received his highest ever votes at 249, which he took to Twitter to gloat a bit.

You saw that correctly. The Official MonsterRaving Looney Party was founded in 1983 by English musician Screaming Lord Sutch. He was succeeded by Alan “Howling Laud” Hope in 1999 when he passed away.

Hope stood for elections against a series of high-profilers, including David Cameron (Witney) in 2010, Boris Johnson (Uxbridge & South Ruislip) in 2015 and Theresa May (Maidenhead) during this election. He was previously the Mayor of Ashburton in 1998.

Despite calling voters to “vote for insanity”, there are actually times when their policies eventually became part of UK laws. One, for instance, is the liquor law. Previously in the UK, 24-hour drinking wasn’t legal (sounds familiar?). The party campaigned for all day opening of pubs in the 1980s and then all-night opening in 1997 when the former became a law in 1995.

The party was a campaigner for animal rights as well, hence their call for pets passport to be introduced in the 1983 elections. The policy eventually came into existence in 2001.

ELMO LOVES YOU, BUT YOUR VOTES MORE: Elmo returns to the ballot again after losing out to David Cameron in 2015.
(Image: Getty Image)

Another figure who stood alongside Theresa May definitely attracted some attention. Elmo.

You must be thinking why would there be a candidate putting on an Elmo costume and standing for the election.

He wasn’t there without any personal agenda. The man behind the costume, Bobby Smith, is a father rights activists. The father-of-two wanted to change the law with regards to the equal custody of fathers in the family courts after his own experience. He previously ran under the Give Me Back Elmo Party banner in 2015 against former British PM David Cameron at Witney, garnering 37 votes.